East Bay ride: Calaveras-Palomares Sat. Feb 2

[jobob]

East Bay ride, Saturday Feb. 2, 10 am start from Sunol

You're cordially invited to come out to the East Bay and join me on one of my favorite rides, starting in Sunol and heading over Calaveras Road, then back into Fremont and up to to Mission San Jose for lunch, then up Palomares Rd, into Pleasanton and down Foothill Rd back to Sunol.

Those so inclined can then join me at Bosco's Bones & Brew in beautiful downtown Sunol for a snack and maybe a nice recovery beverage.

We'll be starting in Sunol at 10 am, at the parking lot of the Sunol Glen School at the corner of Bond & Main Sts.

Then we'll head over Calaveras Road (average grade ~4-5%), down into Milpitas, back into Fremont and up Mission Blvd. to Mission San Jose.

We'll have a lunch break at Mission Coffee on Washington Blvd. which is at about the mile 26 point.

Then we'll have a nice long shallow descent down Mission Blvd (zoom!) and hang a right onto Niles Canyon Rd., then climb up Palomares Road (average grade ~ 6%, a couple of bits ~10-12% but happily they are short). Then a really nice descent down the other side of Palomares (a reasonably smooth, wide road with minimal turns and good sightlines - zoom zoom!), then up Dublin Canyon Rd. to Pleasanton and south on Foothill Rd back into Sunol.

As mapped out here, it'll be roughly 57 miles and around 4000 ft of climbing:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...Palomares-ride

If you're not up for the entire ride, you can cut out the second half of the ride and bypass Palomares road: Once we reach Niles Canyon Rd. you can continue straight on Niles Canyon to Sunol rather than heading up Palomares. That would be about 38 miles total, and roughly 1700 ft of climbing.

There are also many options for the studly ones : up and back on Welch Creek Road; a loop up Sierra Rd and down Felter to re-join the route; or, at the north end of Palomares, instead of heading east on Dublin Canyon you can head west on Castro Valley Blvd, then north/east on Crow Canyon to Norris Canyon, then south on San Ramon Blvd which becomes Foothill. I can map those out as well.

I created a ride listing on bikejournal here:
SF East Bay ride, Calaveras/Palomares

Hope you can make it !

[DrBadger]

I wanna come.
Have a great time!

[Bike Goddess]

Do you think it might stop raining by then???? Oh and snowing????

[jobob]

I'll go check my magic 8-ball & get back to you.

[BikeMomma]

Sounds like a nice ride, Jobob. Wish I could make it.
~Kim

[five one]

Methinks DH and I, and possibly a friend of ours, are a definite maybe for this ride. Will know later in the week and will post again. Fingers are crossed for no rain. It will be nice to finally ride with you. It's been a few years since I've ridden Palomares and Calaveras. Now that things are greening up, it should be beautiful up there. Do you have any other takers?

[aka_kim]

I'm in. I thought I would have to work, but hey, who cares about work anyway?

[Bike Goddess]

I'm planning to come as well. Might bring along a few friends from the Benicia Bike Club- have posted the ride on our yahoo mailing list. We'll see.

Let's get that rain out of the forecast!

[melissam]

Jo,

Are you planning to do this ride rain, shine, or drizzle?

-- Melissa

[jobob]

Yes indeedy!!!

The weather report of the moment says that it might rain a bit later in the afternoon, so one possibility is to just do Calveras and then head straight up Niles Canyon & skip Palomares.

C'mon down! (Or in your case, up!). LeeBob will be there.

[snapdragen]

C'mon down! (Or in your case, up!). LeeBob will be there.

There you go, now she's gonna be stalkin' LeeBob all day long.....

[melissam]

There you go, now she's gonna be stalkin' LeeBob all day long.....

Yup, guilty as charged.

[Bike Goddess]

I'm thinking that Calveras might be it for me as well. I certainly don't want to be out in this cold stuff!

We'll see who else I can persuade to come as well. We have another ride scheduled for Marin but I think the rain is even more likely sooner there than down Sunol way.

[five one]

Still on the fence here. The weather gods are predicting rain by 9 am. If that's the case, we'll probably stick to riding a route down here (Morgan Hill) so we can bail out and get home sooner if need be.

If we don't see you all this time, I hope you will schedule this ride again when the weather is more predictable - as in dry .

five one aka wet weather weenie

[Trek420]

Then we'll have a nice long shallow descent down Mission Blvd (zoom!) and hang a right onto Niles Canyon Rd.

Maybe not, on the news this morning there is a rock slide on Niles Canyon, it's closed right now.